La Reine malheureuse: Stuart history, sympathetic history and the Stricklands' history of Henrietta Maria

This article examines the representation of 'Stuart' queens, particularly Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, in the writings of Victorian royal biographers, Agnes and Elizabeth Strickland, to consider how their depiction of women associated with the Stuarts might alter our understanding of the Stuart heritage in Victorian Britain. The article will demonstrate that the Stricklands' sympathetic representation of Henrietta Maria can be read, not merely as an attempt to insert women into the historical record, but rather, as an alternate feminine historiography of Britain, which contrary to the Whig tradition, retained a sympathy for things French, Catholic and Stuart.